From Metaphor Studies Back to Metaphor

This chapter builds on the previous transdisciplinary discussions of metaphor and revisits the issues raised in the previous chapters, in particular whether metaphor is a matter of style or of thought, what role literal meaning plays in the construction of metaphorical meaning, and what role non-propositional entities such as mental imagery play in metaphorical meaning construction. In examining these questions, antinomies emerge that challenge an essentialist view of metaphor as a homogeneous phenomenon, a view we will refer to as Natural Kind Assumption. In this chapter, we will reject the Natural Kind Assumption and claim that metaphors have no unitary properties for generalizations, thus challenging the prevailing notion of metaphor as a particular natural kind. We will derive the main philosophical consequences of this view for Metaphor Studies.